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I have received requests for an e-commerce solution that supports multiple languages several times and have not found one that truly does a good job. I think BV has the best opportunity at really make it work.
To really be multi lingual, the system would need to allow a customer the option of selecting a language which would change the site Theme, SiteTerms, Category and Product information. Most the other solutions out there seem to only really support different "site terms" for each language. It seems obvious to me that anyone doing multi languages would want the category names, descriptions, and the product information redone in each language as well.
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Rank: Member
Joined: 11/5/2003(UTC)
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Microsoft Commerce Server supports this but it starts around $10,000 for the base software app. You still have to build a site almost from scratch. I've looked into multi-lingual many times and it is something that I'd like to support eventually but it does require extensive changes to the core database structure.
The biggest issue is that almost everything in the site would need the ability to be varied by language. This includes product descriptions, prices and all other product data as well as policies and content pages, categories, button images, other images, error messages, email template, print templates, etc. Things can spiral out of control very quickly.
I've had some customers just use to versions of the software. One for Canadian customers and one for American customers. They bought both the .com and .ca domains. It may not work for everyone but it is a good short term solution that's cheaper than Commerce Server.
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Rank: Member
Joined: 8/16/2008(UTC)
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I have thought of doing this - multiple stores for the different languages / currencies as well. I came back to supporting multi-lingual / currency's because I need the order numbers unique across the stores so when they get imported into accounting they are not stepping on each other, and also keep the inventory levels in sync so if one is purchases in 1 store it is deducted from all stores....
If running the store multiple times is the answer (seems like an easy answer to me), is there a way to set it up so they multiple instances play nicely together? It might be easier to tackle that issue instead. Actually thinking about this a little more, this solution could have really good side affects.
Could I make my multi-lingual feature enhancement really be a multi-store link instead? Basically have an option to run the store in normal, or secondary mode. When in secondary, allow the admin to define the Primary store URL, and let them select what items are pulled from the primary store - LastOrderNumber, ProductInventory, CustomerAccounts, GiftCertificates, etc.... Then if someone comes to the secondary store and one of those items are turned on, it just gets that data from the primary store instead.
I see some good uses for this...
-JG
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Rank: Member
Joined: 8/16/2008(UTC)
Posts: 48
Location: United States
Thanks: 3 times
Was thanked: 2 time(s) in 1 post(s)
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How about it Marcus? Good idea? Bad idea?
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Rank: Member
Joined: 11/5/2003(UTC)
Posts: 1,786
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I could see a modified version of BV where one database is used for reading/writing orders and pulling inventory levels. The rest of the settings would live in other databases. Let me put some thought into this.
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